Yes! Got it finished in time. Here you go! Hetalia Tales 4 : Beauty and the Beast for your enjoyment!
Characters
The Sorceress – Natalya – Belarus
The Beast – King Ivan – Russia
Glass dome – Emil – Iceland
Belle – Matthew – Canada
Bookshop Owner – Hercules – Greece
LeFou – Flavio – 2p! Romano
Gaston – Luciano – 2p! Italy
Now on with the story ~
I do not own Hetalia or Disney!
Previously in Sleeping Beauty...
"I will not marry you, Natalya!" Ivan said with conviction although (but he would never admit this) she made him nervous. Over the past few years, there had been something increasingly off about Natalya, accumulating in her obsession for wanting to marry him, her own brother!
"Why not, brother?" she demanded, a dark aura falling over her. "Why should we not become one?"
"You answered your own question. Because I'm your brother, Natalya. Us, marry! Nyet! (No!) It's unnatural and I could never love you in such a way." Natalya's mood darken further is that were possible.
"Our sweet older sister has contaminated you with her opinions to turn you against me. I knew she had." Ivan suddenly froze.
"What do you know about Katyusha?" he said, suspiciously. When Katyusha suddenly disappeared, Ivan sent servants and used his ice magic to try to find her but there was no sign, other than a hint of magic too old to trace. Now, with what Natalya had blurted out, he had a new lead to follow.
"She stood between us. She wanted you for herself!" Ivan knew for sure now that his sister was insane.
"She never wanted me like that. She loved me as her brother. What did you do to her?" Natalya just smiled a sinister smile.
"I will find her with or without your help, Natalya. I will never be your husband, I don't even want you for a sister now. I wish to be surrounded by people who love, not obsess!" Natalya's face turned ugly.
"Let's see anyone love you after this!" she screamed. Ivan raised his hooked, diamond-topped staff to defend himself but Natalya was faster and there was a blinding white light.
Chapter 1 : A Provincial Town.
Ivan was trapped in the white glow of Natalya's magic, unable to move or use his own. He never realised that she had become so strong. He was a powerful wizard in his own right but somehow Natalya had surpassed him.
The servants in the throne room rushed forward to help their sovereign but another wave of her staff and they were frozen too. Then she plucked a sunflower, her brother's favourite, from a nearby vase.
"Release me, Natalya," he warned, although he was not sure what he could do if she did not. But she seemed not to hear him as her eyes glowed and she began to weave her spell.
Your magic sealed, your form transformed
Your castle with servants as objects adorned
Your heart with no beat, until the day
Your soul mate should happen to come by your way
Love given and sent before the flower decays
Fail, beast and objects remain all of your days.
And of this curse you cannot tell
Or cursed your soul mate will be as well.
Pain racked Ivan's body as his bones twisted and changed shape, tearing his clothes as his body grew and bulked out. His face stretched outward and became a snout, his upper and lower incisors growing into fangs and white hair spouted all over his body. Two twisted horns grew from either side of his head, his heart fell silent in his chest and when the transformation was finished, Ivan would have collapsed had the magic glow not been holding him up.
And his heart not longer beat in his chest.
Natalya then turned to the paralysed servants
"I can't have you running about trying to find your king his soul mate," she commented and waved her staff.
Emil Steilsson of the Bondevik Tribe, Ivan's apprentice, realised that, from the lines Your castle with servants as objects adorned and Love given and sent before the flower decays, Natalya intended to turn them into knick-knacks and object d'art and that the cure for the curse was connected to the life of the flower. He was powerless to stop it but if Natalya did not know he possessed magic, being a half-ling, he could affect what he became and, perhaps, be able to be useful later.
Cries and screams filled the air as all the servants and courtiers began to transform. Emil struggled to concentrate through the pain and when it was done, Natalya dropped an ornate hand mirror on the floor at Ivan's feet.
"Something so you can still see the outside world, dear brother," she mocked. "A world you're no longer apart of. You want to be free? Then you must find your soul mate." She infused the word with mockery. "When you do, your heart will beat again and this flower will glow. But you must love this person and they must love you before the last petal falls but you can never tell them about the curse or you will curse them and it will never be broken. Fail and you and your servants will remain like this forever for you will not age while the curse stands. Imagine, brother. You! Immortal! As a beast!"
Everyone was released from the glow as Natalya disappeared laughing. A huge white beast lay on the floor, surrounded by objects which included a glass dome and a floating sunflower.
Ashamed of his new form and how people might respond to him now, Ivan withdrew from the world and became as cold as his unbeating heart. His servants tried to keep his spirits up but Ivan sank into despair with the belief that he would never break the curse.
Because who could ever love a beast!
30 years later...
Matthew Kirkland-Bonnefoy's day had not got off to the best start. While in the basement of the cottage he shared with his papa, he had knocked against a set of shelves and one of his Fae father's potions had fallen on his head and covered him. He had no idea what it did but there did not seem to have any affect so he thought nothing of it. However, it was a potion to induce singing and dancing, usually used for celebrations. However it was not used in such quantity, it could not even be removed by bathing, it had to be removed by magic and it would have an unusual reaction.
He picked up the book he had finished only last night, put it in his basket and left for the town, with his pet polar bear, Kumajirou, by his side.
As he went he did not realise he was singing, ' Early morning in a provincial town, the same old people all around. Throughout the town, you hear this sound." The wind came from behind Matthew and blew some of the powdery potion into the town.
"Bonjour!" a woman called from her bedroom window.
"Bonjour!" a shopkeeper said as he swept his doorstep.
"Bonjour!" Matthew spotted the baker, carrying his bread basket.
"The baker bakes, the farmer sows," he sang and saw the dressmaker stitching in her window. "The seamstress sitting making clothes. All greet all causes all knows!"
"Bonjour!"
"Bonjour!"
"Bonjour, Matthieu," the baker called. Matthew greeted him politely.
"Where're you off to, today?"
"The bookshop," Matthew replied. "I just finished a wonderful story about..." But the baker was already bored with the conversation and went to get some baguettes. Matthew shrugged his shoulders and went on his way, passing two gossiping old women.
"That boy is strange," one muttered to the other."He reads, he dreams."
"Yes, not as normal as he seems," her friend agreed.
"Has no plans with normal themes," another women commented.
"He's strange!" her husband replied.
"He's strange!" his wife and her friend agreed.
"He's strange!"a crowd chimed. The rest of the village went about their business.
"Bonjour, my friend. How is your day?"
"Bonjour, monsieur. My day is fine!" Matthew sighed.
"This happens every single day in this provincial town."
He reached the bookshop and went inside.
The shop owner, Hercules Kapusi, had arrived in the village nearly ten years ago and opened the bookshop. The townspeople wondered how he stayed in business. Sometimes the shop would not open for 'trips to buy stock' and very few people actually used the shop, Matthew being his best customer. Hercules was the only one Matthew had anything remotely in common with. A love of books, philosophy in Hercules's case, fantasy in Matthew's.
"Hello, Matthew," he greeted and scratched Kumajirou behind his ear which he liked.
"Hello, Hercules," Matthew replied. "I came to return the book I borrowed."
"Finished it already!"
"I couldn't put it down. Have you got anything new?"
"Not since yesterday."
"Okay," he mused, looking over the books on one of the shelves. "I'll borrow... this one." and he picked one off the shelf. Hercules looked at the title.
"You've read this twice already!"
"It's my favourite," Matthew said. "Far off places, magic spells, a prince under curse!"
"If you like it that much, it's yours."
"But I can't..."
"I insist!"
"Oh thank you!"
Clutching his new treasure, Matthew and his bear left the bookshop and began to walk back up the main street, villagers whispering behind his back.
"That boy's so cute, it's such a shame," a girl whispered to her friend. "I wonder just who is to blame?"
"Two fathers," another commented. "Or so that's the claim."
"He's weird, he's weird, he's weird!"
Matthew sat by the village fountain as sheep were herded around him, reading more of his book. One of them chewed on a page as he pulled the book away from it while he was being watched from a ladies hat shop where a customer was being attended to by the shop owner.
"He looks so cute, it's just too bad," the woman said to the shopkeeper. "He's so peculiar, it's so sad." The shopkeeper shrugged.
"I've heard tell, his father's mad," he replied. "He's odd, he's odd, he's odd!"
A flock of geese, flying in formation, suddenly scattered as a loud bang filled the air and one of their group fell from the sky. It plummeted to the ground where a young man with dyed-blonde hair with a curl to the right and purplish-pink eyes, waited with a sack to catch the goose in. He was a little off and it hit the ground. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed, quickly grabbed the carcass and stuffed it in the bag.
Flavio Maestri took the bag to his twin brother, a man with dark hair, tanned skin and magenta eyes, who was blowing the smoke away from the end of the blunderbuss he had just used to shoot the goose from the sky.
"You don't miss a shot, Luciano," Flavio praised. "You must be the greatest hunter in all the world!"
"Very true," Luciano agreed. Having his twin around was a boost to his ego. Flavio was the older twin but Luciano was the more assertive which was why he was leader of his little gang.
To put it bluntly, Luciano was a criminal.
He and his gang had been a crime wave that had swept across Italy until they had been hired by the Dark Sorceress, Natalya to kidnap King Romulus's son, Lovino. Luciano had his own reasons for taking the job and after delivering the brat to Natalya, she told him that he and his gang had better lie low and, as an incentive, she cast a spell over the group to stop them ageing. Every now and then she would call them in for any job she did not want to use magic for. It was a very lucrative arrangement.
Until twelve years ago.
They moved around to avoid awkward questions about their lack of ageing. They had just arrived at this village when the news came that the Dark Sorceress had been destroyed and they had begun to age again.
There was one benefit, however. They would not have to move around any more and they integrated themselves into the village. Those Luciano could not charm, he intimidated. In short order, he and his gang became the unofficial leaders of the village.
But there was one he could not intimidate, not if he wanted to get what he wanted. So he tried charm but the person in question seemed oddly immune.
"No beast alive stands a chance against you," Flavio laughed. "No heart either, for that matter."
"That's true, fratello," Luciano replied. "And I've got my sights set on him!" He used the blunderbuss to point down the main street.
Straight at Matthew!
Flavio looked at Matthew and then back at his twin in surprise.
"The inventor's son?" he questioned.
"He's the one," Luciano stated. "The lucky one I've decided to marry."
"But he's..."
"The most beautiful in town."
"Yes, but..."
"That means he's the best," Luciano said in a tone that brooked no argument, grabbing the front of Flavio's shirt to empathise the point. "And I deserve the best, don't I."
Flavio nodded, knowing Luciano would not listen to a word about the strangeness of the Kirkland-Bonnefoy family. Matthew was considered strange because of his reading and dreaming of a life of adventure but that was nothing compared to his papa.
Francis Kirkland-Bonnefoy was an inventor who, by their very nature, are considered eccentric but this was compound by the fact that Francis insisted that he was married to a Fae who was looking for Matthew's missing twin. The village was rather isolated and the people there considered the Fae to be a myth and so considered Francis to be a little mad.
But if Luciano wanted Matthew, Flavio would help him get Matthew.
"I saw young Matthew, such a catch," Luciano sang as a gust of wind from Matthew's direction hit him. "Only he is my true match. And so a plan I'm going to hatch"
"He's mine, he's mine, he's mine!"
Luciano took off down the road towards Matthew, passing some of the local girls who were suffering from a real case of bad boy syndrome. And potion dust.
"He's ooh lala!" Jeane sighed.
"He's muy fine!," Carmen agreed.
"He's so awesome!" Julchen added.
"He's mine!" they all sang.
Unaware that he was being stalked by the village bad boy, Matthew went on his way as the hum-drum of village life went on around him. To Luciano, it seemed like everyone was getting in his way but he was determined to make Matthew his spouse so he found a way around the back of the shops and houses to get ahead of him. Matthew let the chatter wash over him.
"Matthew's life is the one I'll share in this provincial town ," Luciano announced to the other villagers who looked in Matthew's direction who had not heard Luciano's proclamation.
"Matthew's strange," they sang with renew interest in the boy. "His father's mad!"
"He's my match," Luciano replied. "He's not his Dad! Protest and I'll do something bad. He's mine, he's mine."
"HE'S MINE!"
Matthew got the feeling he was being stared at, looked round and saw the villagers suddenly moved like they had never stopped what they were doing. In fact, no one realised they had been singing.
Matthew continued to read his book as he walked and almost ran into someone who was suddenly in front of him and Kumajirou started growling. He looked up and saw, what he viewed as, the bane of his existence.
"Hello, Luciano," he said to be polite and went back to his book as he tried to walk around Luciano.
Luciano was not happy being second fiddle to a book and pulled it out of Matthew's hands, flipping through the pages.
"Luciano, may I have my book please?" Matthew demanded. Luciano continued to flip through the pages.
"How can you read this?" he asked. "There aren't even any pictures." Matthew rolled his eyes.
"Some people use their imaginations," he said, sarcastically. It flew over Luciano's head, as did Matthew's book as he threw it away and it landed in a puddle.
"You should get your head out of those books and think about more important things," he advised. "Like me!"
Kumajirou retrieved his master's book before it got too damaged and took it Matthew who was thinking about what a world sized ego this man had. He was amazed Luciano could move, he was so big-headed.
"Everyone's talking about it," Luciano was not happy that people were gossiping about his future life partner. "Nobody should read so much. Soon they start thinking and getting ideas." He shuddered at the thought of Matthew thinking for himself.
"You're positively primaeval," Matthew commented under his breath but Luciano heard it and, not knowing what the word meant, thought Matthew had complimented him.
"Thank you, Matt." MATT! Only his twin brother, Alfred, had ever called him that. That or Mattie. Before Matthew could object to the familiarity, Luciano had put his arm around his shoulders and tried to steer him back into the village.
"Come to the tavern and I'll show you my hunting trophies," he offered. Like Matthew really wanted to see a bunch of dead animal heads. He slipped out of Luciano grip.
"Another time."
The Badboy Bimbo Trio could not believe Matthew was passing up this chance but then they always thought he was strange.
"Come on, Matt," Matthew gritted his teeth. "Spend some time with me!" Matthew just wanted to get away with him, especially now his fawning twin, Flavio, had just joined them as Matthew saw him come up behind Luciano.
"Sorry," he said, not sorry at all. "But I have to get home and help my father. Goodbye!"
Flavio laughed.
"That crazy lunatic," he giggled. "He needs all the help he can get." The Maestri twins began laughing.
"Don't talk about my father that way!"
Luciano realised that ridiculing Matthew's family was not the best way to get into Matthew's good books and slapped Flavio across the head.
"Don't talk about his father that way," he parroted.
"My papa's not crazy," Matthew stated in defence of his father. "He's a genius!"
BOOM!
A large smoke cloud shot into the air from the direction of Matthew's cottage. Matthew gasped,"Papa!" and ran home, Kumajirou following, with Luciano and Flavio's laughter echoing in his ears.
I hope you like this first chapter. I know I've made Matthew out of character, he's more assertive and not ignored. I'm putting it down to Alfred being missing and not overshadowing Matthew so he's more noticeable and comes out of his shell more. Besides, the story wouldn't work if no one noticed him.
Because Ivan's older than twenty-one I couldn't used the 'flower blooming until his twenty-first birthday' scenario so I had to come up with something else. Those readers who've read Heartbeat will recognise the unbeating heart scenario. Yes, this is where I first used the idea and came up with Heartbeat. I came up with the idea from Ivan's heart always falling out. This is simply less gory.
I couldn't think of any of the 1p!s that suited Gaston's personality so I've dug into the 2p! Universe and used the 2p! Italies. I've done this for a reason that will be revealed as we go through the story. And yes, that is Fem! BTT.
And what do you think of my idea for everyone bursting into song at a moment's notice. Clever? Silly? Please let me know!
Well that's it for this week. A new story up and running. Hope you enjoy!
Till next week,
Hasta la Pasta!
(In accordance with this site's rules, I've removed the original songs. I've had a go at writing my own (Don't kill me!))
